i finished the star wars universe: part III

June 29, 2024

read part I and part II of this article series, if you want.

In this article I am going to chain smoke the SWU properties and you are going to read the haze coming out of my mouth.

prequel trilogy

A naive Canadian boy and a gullible Scottish guy are leading this. They are good though. Especially the Scottish one.
There is Natalie Portman of age 18 who doesn’t have to cut school to be on Letterman’s anymore.
There is Liam Neeson after saving many Jews from the fascists, and before saving his own daughter from the Albanian mafia, not able to save himself from Darth Maul.
3D CGI is not as blasphemous to me as it is to some folk, but the technology was obviously not matured enough, and it does look bad compared to the hand crafted models of the original trilogy.
Jar Jar’s alleged “comedy” is as annoying as it has been mocked.

Though we have to give it to George Lucas when it comes to the story. Here we have the origin story of the ultimate villain of the original trilogy, who is also family with the leading role heroic siblings. It’s such a hard task to put all these pieces together in a logical and believable manner. What does it take to convert “the Chosen One”, the best of them Jedi all, to the killing machine Sith Lord the whole world watched on the screen two decades ago? What kind of tragedy, what a genius work of constant manipulation should take place so that this extreme twist of morality happens and everybody watching is still on-board with the idea? In my opinion: He pulled it off just fine. (unlike HBO, whose Mother of Dragons snapped out of the blue)

sequel trilogy

Recently I watched the first one of these, The Force Awakens (2015), again, to remember. My conclusion: It’s better forgotten. Lunatic shit is happening in this one. Our main character Rey is learning and successfully performing the “mind trick”, or Force persuasion, on a guard while being tied and locked up in a cell in the enemy base. A skill that many well-trained Jedi are able to fail on strong-minded targets. It’s as if she ran over a level 2 rabbit on the way to the quest, which gave her just enough XP to unlock the next skill. Apparently this is what replaced a good old Jedi training now. Even worse in the ending act of the movie, the ex-stormtrooper character Finn is wielding a light saber against the new generation Sith apprentice Kylo Ren, and actually engaging in what seems to be an even fight. I won’t speak further about this.

From what I remember about the last two movies,
– The Last Jedi (2017) had a beautiful crimson-sand planet, Crait, that is worthy of looking at, and the Force projection skill utilized there by Luke is a creative idea that was satisfying to see. In the ending scene it is implied that any force-sensitive kid without a training can perform telekinesis, which shook the lore a lot, and created new continuity/consistency problems.
– The Rise of Skywalker (2019) had me lose all engagement at “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”

stand-alone movies and animated TV shows

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (film, 2008): It is where Ahsoka is introduced for the first time. Not bad.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016): Good action, good drama. Tells how the Death Star data was acquired, ends where A New Hope begins. One of the few good SWU things attributed to Disney. Mads Mikkelsen playing in it. Controversial characters with debatable senses of morality (which makes you think. that’s good), including the rebel leader Cassian Andor who has his own TV show now. Sacrifices result in losses as they should be. No “can’t die” syndrome.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018): Han Solo’s origin story. Don’t remember much. Should be a mediocre money squeeze out of the character’s fame.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV show, 2008-2013): Watched the following episodes in preparation to some other shows: Season 01: Episodes 08 and 09. S02: E08, E11. S03: E07, 15-17, 21, 22. S04: E21, 22. S05: E01-04, 14-16, 20. S07: E09-12.
These episodes are quite some must-watch. A lot of interesting stuff is happening here. It expands on the concept of the “chosen one”, centred around Anakin. It shows why and how Ahsoka was distanced from the Jedi order shortly before Order 66, and how she experiences the heat of Order 66. Shows the return of the mentally and physically broken Darth Maul, seeking revenge on Obi-Wan for cutting him in half (though Maul cut Liam Neeson first), and how Siege of Mandalore plays out.

Star Wars: Rebels (2014-2018): Watched in preparation to the Ahsoka show. S01: E01, 04. S02: E03, 04, 20-22. S03: E01, 02, 16, 20. S04: E13-16.
Ahsoka was shown as Anakin’s apprentice before this show. This is where she is a master of her own. Introduces “World Between Worlds”, which is an interesting -and handy for the story- phenomenon in many ways. There are encounters with Anakin who is now Darth Vader. More exploration of Mandalore. The Obi-Wan – Maul story comes to an end with this show, in a memorable fashion.

Star Wars: Tales (2022 – ): Nice origin stories on Count Dooku and Ahsoka so far, although one of the episodes f*cks up the Ahsoka novel for you and I hate it for that (see the rant in article part II). Fills in many gaps which I always appreciate when done for a universe I follow.

to be smoked further…